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March 29, 2012

When I write about these stories, I mention (a lot) that dog attack fatalities are a result, not of the dogs involved, but of the people that surrounded the dogs that led to the dog attack.

This one is case exactly one of those tragic cases.

On Sunday, 4 year old Kyler Johnson, wandered away from his home while his dad was cleaning his car. More than 100 people -- including law enforcement and volunteers, searched overnight for Kyler. Fifteen hours after being lost, Kyler was found dead -- killed by a neighbor's dog. In order to be attacked by the dog, officials say the boy had to have traveled more than 1/2 mile, likely through a wooded area.

Authorities speculate that the boy may have intentionally been hiding from people searching for him as part of a game, but it could have also been out of fear of punishment also.

While the dog owner had never had any incidents, the same can't be said for Kyler's family.

According to media reports, in October, 2010, someone other than Kyle's father was accused of abuse and lack of supervision. A month later, physical abuse against Kyler was accused, although no evidence was found. The home where Kyler lived was also subject to a homicide investigation a year ago along with "several other calls" including someone who shot himself in the head "accidentally" during a party. That night, Kyler's father was charged with interfering with an investigation and another member of the party was charged with drug possession.

This is a tragic story -- with a very young victim. But obviously highly preventable. The boy was obviously not well supervised (something that was apparently not a one-time occurance). He wandered very far from home (just think about your home, and think about a 1/2 mile radius of your home (approx. 5 city blocks in all directions) and think of the dangers that would await a solo 4 year old -- dogs, cars, creeks, ditches, walls to fall off of, swimming pools, etc) and wandered up to 10 chained dogs that were used for hog hunting and home protection.

Sigh.

My heart goes out to everyone in this community who obviously cared about this young boy by organizing such a large search party. But this is clearly a case of the people being responsible for incidents like this, and not the dogs.

This story appears to have been picked up by 50-70 or so media outlets.

March 28, 2012

Today's Huffington Post has an interesting look at the most popular US dogs by state with an article by Vetstreet's Kristen Seymore -including a pretty great info-graphic with data by state.

According to their numbers, the American Pit Bull Terrier was among the 3 most popular US breeds in 28 states - -ranking #1 in Rhode Island. Labrador Retrievers and Chihuahuas are the other breeds most likely to be in the top 3 with Labs being #1 in 42 states.

I confess that I don't know exactly where the information for this study comes from -- but it certainly seems to have more credible data than other reports that only include American Kennel Club numbers (AKC licensed dogs make up only a small fraction of US dogs) or licensed dogs (which make up also a non-representative sample) -- at least based on the experience of pretty much anyone who has been to a park, taken a walk in a neighborhood, or set foot in a shelter.

It's interesting to see the popularity of the American Pit Bull Terrier as one of the most popular dogs in the country and that, in spite of the created reputation, a very large number of people choose to own them. Maybe that reputation isn't so deserved after all? And if pit bulls were genetically bred to kill or whatever nonsense haters try to say, it certainly doesn't make sense that there are so few major attacks given the large numbers of these dogs. It is also interesting to think of cities who do consider legislation targeting the dogs are overwhelmed by the resistance they get by the many owners in their communities. There is strength in numbers.

Thanks to the Huffington Post and Vetstreet for the story. If anyone knows how the data is gathered, I'm curious.

March 25, 2012

It's been busy and I appologize that I've not posted anything in over a week. Been that type of week. Let's dive into the week that was and I promise to be a more proficient blogger next week.

Cities/States and Laws

Parma, OH may not change it's breed-specific law following the repeal of the state-wide law in Ohio. Cities in Ohio will still be allowed to make their own policies that could be breed-specific. This will be an ongoing battle for residents of Ohio -- however, I do feel like the state assembly's repeal of breed-specific languange sends a strong message that attitudes about the dogs are changing. Portsmouth, OH is also looking at adding a new law that would declare all 'pit bulls' and Wolf hybrids as vicious.

Greyhounds are now finally considered dogs, and not livestock, under Kansas state law.

Omaha officials are saying that dog bites in city parks are on the rise after there were 5 dog bites in city parks in just 10 days -- most involving young chilren. Omaha passed a breed specific law in 2008 -- which has done nothing to improve public safety.

Okolona, MS is looking at a new dog law that would specifically target 'pit bulls' and cause owners to have to pay $150 to register their dogs. The breed specific law is considered because of a couple of reports of pit bulls "out on the loose, running around, barking at people, you know, trying to bite people", according animal control officer Ellis McVay. So not actually biting people -- but running around and barking.

Putnam County, FL is seeing increased push back against their policy of not allowing pit bulls to be adopted from their shelter -- which only helps increase the demand for breading pit bulls (because they can't be adopted) and sentences most shelter pit bulls to death unnecessarily. Saginaw County, MI appears to be discussing a similar issu.

Time to repeal pit bull ban - Toronto Sun Columnist Peter Wrothington lays out a well thought out argument about why Ontario's pit bull ban should be repealed.

A Nevada Assemblyman plans to introduce a bill to make BSL illegal in the state in the 2013 legislative session.

Carthage, MO residents have approached their city council about repealing their city's breed ban.

Dog bites/attacks

Dogs are amazing, loving members of families across our country. However, in spite of how incredibly safe they are, serious bites do happen. When they do, it is important to look at the events that led to the attack in order to help prevent such attacks as they are a behavior based issue, not a breed-specific one.

A woman and her child were bitten by the family's pet 'pit bull' in Delaware. The child reportedly approached the dog's food bowl while the dog was eating and the dog snapped at the child. Apparenlty a similar incident happened about a year ago when a different child was bitten in the home. Resource guarding is a common problem in all types of dogs and is usually pretty easily cured through training -- but it is still best to keep young children away from the food bowls of dogs.

A nine year old Ohio boy needed stitches and likely plastic surgery after being bitten in the face by the neighbor's Labrador Retriever.

A 9 year old San Antonio girl was attacked by a 'pit bull' that was tied up to a fence while she and some friends were playing cops and robbers.

A 6 year old Kingsport, TN girl needed mron than 100 stitches after being attacked by a neighbor's "Lab mix".

A UK woman was attacked by two German Shepherds as she tried to prevent them from attacking her dog. The UK banned four breeds of dogs 25 years ago but dog bites continue to rise in the country.

A Sacramento area man was attacked by two Cane Corsos. The dogs were used by the owner to guard his home and attacked the man. A dog's "function" is often a determining factor in dog bites. If a dog is treated as a family dog it is much less likely to be involved in a bite incident than if it is treated as a "guarding" dog and encouraged to be suspicious of strangers.

No Kill

A 14 year veteran of Joliet, IL animal control lost his job after saving a dog from the city's kill list. The Chihuahua was slated for euthanasia after being deemed aggressive for snapping at a customer. The animal control officer had played with the dog earlier in the week and didn't think the dog was aggressive so he took the dog home. It's an interesting story as there appears to be a lot of distrust in the department about their willingness to care for dogs vs just killing them -- and it is good to see compassionate people who are taking a stand to fight for the animals in these situations.

Sacramento City Animal Shelter has launched a new "Let Live Campaign" for the city's animal shelter. They have chosen to not use the term "no kill" because of confusion over what the term means, but is using No Kill philosophies to increase their "leave live" rate with a goal of getting it up to 90% by August. Since taking over the shelter, Gina Knepp has increased the "leave live" rate from 25%, to 30% to 52% in March.

Miscellaneous

I'm really not sure what to make of this story -- but this one comes out of Memphis where there is apparently concern over "dog flipping" -- where people take animals from people and tell them they'll find good homes for the dogs and then sell them on Craig's List. There are some potential isues with cruelty to be concerned with, but taking people's pets that don't want them any more and then giving them to new owners for a fee sounds an awful lot like rescue to me (especially given that this story comes from Memphis -- do we really want any animals going to the city shelter?). I don't suspect this is a huge problem -- as I don't know many rescues out there who are making a huge amount of money, but do welcome people's thoughts.

United Airlines decides to ban several different "bully breeds" from flying on their airline.

A great article on professional photos of shelter animals (with awesome visuals too).

Kansas City area news

Wayside Waifs has a new mobile unit to allow them to better respond to disaster situations.

Blogs

Returned -- this story will make you really sad, and angry, from Pound Dogs

Surrender -- Pound Dogs again -- but this ne talking about the myriad reasons people leave animals at the shelter -- and while it's easy to point at people as being good or bad, in a black or white manner, it really is very grey in many cases.

Ho, Hum, Time to punch my time card - -YesBiscuit! with a telling video of a Memphis ACO who has to reach over a dog that is being literally dragged down the hall on a catch pole in order to punch in and doesn't even seem to acknowledge how cruel the actions of his coworker are. There appears to be just absolutely no compassion at this shelter - -and you just can't fake caring.

Dog Body Language: How to tell if a dog is happy, frustrated, scared, annoyed -- Smartdog takes a look at canine behavior in another television news clip and notes what can really be learned about the dog's comfort level with the situation and thinks the family is setting the dog of for disaster.

Pit Bull Myths: It's how they're raised -- The Lazy Pit Bull looks at this common mantra and notes that many, many pit buls that were raised poorly quickly adapt to new environments and are still loving dogs.

Is BSL corrupting our children? -- Everything worth knowing I learned from my dog looks at what message judging dogs based on their looks sends to children who are taught to not stereotype based on appearances.

How a dog sees the world - a fun music video that features the day in the life of a dog with a camera strapped to his back....the dog has a pretty nice life.

Instights into BSL -- the details the Victorian government don't want you to know about "dangerous dog" legislation -- some great commentary on Victoria's (Australia) attempt to ban pit bulls in the state -- and the data as to why it won't work and the dog bite data for the major cities in the area.

The discussion of the repeal began after officials mis-identified a dog as being a 'pit bull'. Concerned residents approached the city about the unfairness of the law, and the city council was wise, reviewed the changes, and adopted a new law that does not single out breeds of dogs.

March 14, 2012

Last week, there was a news story out of Springfield, MO about their successful, 19 week run, at being a "no kill" shelter. While, there are many good points about the story, it did highlight for me maybe one of my biggest pet peeves in animal sheltering that I feel like I'm seeing a lot more of these days.

First, a little about Springfield, MO's shelter. The shelter itself is very small and very old -- and was very much designed as a catch and kill facility (like many old shelters were). The shelter is less than 4000 square feet in size, serving a population of more than 200,000 people. It has 34 cages/runs. The Springfield, MO shelter does not even attempt to adopt animals out of their shelter. And as recently as two years ago, roughly 2500 (out of a total of 5,000 impounds) animals were killed in the city shelter.

However, many rescue groups began working with the city to pull more animals out of the city shelter. And these groups have had tremendous success pulling animals, getting them healthy, and getting them into homes. And for 19 weeks, all "adoptable" dogs from the Springfield Shelter have been saved.

This is a huge testiment to the work being done by the rescue groups -- and to a degree, the city for working with them.

On the flip side, I have an issue with the city hiding behind the word "adoptable".

These dogs were declared "unadoptable" -- not because they were sick, or injured, or agressive. But because of what they looked like.

So essentially, if the law of averages plays out - -in the past 19 weeks while Springfield has been declaring itself "no kill" of "adoptable" animals, it has killed roughly 133 'pit bulls' that they just declared "unadoptable". Incidentally, this is the same shelter that for the first 7 months of 2010 put out a presentation that declared 37% of their entire shelter intake as "ill or injured euthanized" -- and 19% "healthy euthanized".

Now, let me note, that I'm familiar with how shelters work - -and there absolutely are animals that enter open access shelters that need to be, and should be, euthanized. They are untreatably ill or aggressive -- and euthanasia is the best policy for them. This is why you hear No Kill groups talk about the importance of achieving a 90% save rate as reaching true "no kill" -- because they expect about 10% of the population to be untreatably ill or aggressive. And even then, some very progressive shelters, like in Austin, are now working to do more to help the "last 10%".

This post isn't meant to belittle anyone who is really making an honest effort to achieve no kill wherever they are in the process - -whether you're still working hard to achieve a 90% save rate, or have achieve that and working on the last 10%. It's also not an effort to belittle the efforts of the rescues in Springfield who are truly saving all the animals they can.

But this post is about being honest. It's about being honest about how many animals are still being killed in the shelter because illness abounds, or the resources don't exist to treat them (yet), or rehabilitate their behavioral issues or because a blanket policy exists to not even try with dogs of certain breeds. It's about not hiding behind the word "adoptable" -- and pretending you're doing everything you can do and saving them all and creating a false-sense of "success" while declaring 37% of the animals at your shelter as too ill to be treated and a whole grouping of dogs as "unadoptable" because of how they look.

That's not transperency. That's not honesty. And that's not No Kill.

We've all seen shelters that do this -- that report figures based on "adoptable" animals -- but with no real clarification of what "adoptable" really means -- and then, systematically, weeding hard to adopt dogs out of the program by declaring them "unadoptable".

It's wrong. And the animals deserve better. And the public deserves to know the truth. From the shelter, and from the media that covers the shelter.

March 12, 2012

They're almost always preventable -- but this one has just about every preventable warning sign in the book.

Over the weekend, 17 month old Dylan Andres wandered away from his home as his mother was unpacking groceries from the car. Dylan apparently darted over to a neighbor's yard where a Rottweiler was chained up in the yard. The owner of the dogs was not home.

There were no immediate witnesses to the attack, but the family heard the commotion from the attack and ran to find the dog attacking the young child. The child later succumbed to the injuries.

The zip code where this took place has a poverty rate of 28% - double the national average. According to the video report, the dog was bought by the owner to be a guard dog for the owner's lawn equipment and was always left chained outside.

The incident is a tragedy --and my heart goes out to the family. While dogs do tend to be very safe animals and a major part of our lives, things can go awry when humans play a role in the attack. I've mentioned a lot in this blog over the past 6 years the impact tethering as a primary form of containment can have on dog behavior. It's also important to note the importance of a dog's function -- whether the dog is a well-socialized family pet, or an unsocialized yard dog, or a dog that is actually trained and encouraged to be aggressive toward strangers (which would appear to be the situation in this case as the dog was specifically bought for guarding purposes). And then, there is the role of the unsupervised toddler wandering into the neighbor's yard and up to the chained dog. There is no limit to the amount of dangers that exist for unsupervised wandering 17 month olds.

It's a tragedy to be sure...but an avoidable one if people choose to focus on the circumstances surrounding the attack instead of the type of dog involved.

March 11, 2012

I'm a bit behind after missing the weekly roundup two consecutive weeks -- so along with this week's top stories, we'll pick up some from the last few weeks as well. I'm likely going to skip a few to make the length of this more manageable (and because I woke up an hour behind this morning), but if you have links you want to add to the comments, please do. There are a couple from late this past week that I am holding until tomorrow. Let's do this.

Cities/Counties and Laws

The Terrell County, GA shelter says they are "inundated" with pit bulls and pit bull mixes after passing a breed-specific law earlier this year that takes effect next month. Authorities feel like many owners are just turning their dogs free because they cannot afford the high cost of keeping their pets (the county has a nearly 30% poverty rate). As if the shelter being inundated with dogs after passing this ordinance wasn't completely foreseeable...

Ventura County, CA is very close to enacting a new law that would require all 'pit bulls' to be spayed or neutered. They seem to be ignoring the reality that this type of law has NEVER led to a decrease in dog bites in a community and has most commonly led to an increased in dead pit bulls at the shelter.

Whitehall, OH seems content to keep it's breed-specific law in spite of a recent law change in the Ohio Statewide law. However, they do seem somewhat open to the change if local constuents push for one.

Dunn, NC has decided against breed-specific laws dealing with their dangerous dog laws.

Dog Bites/Attacks

I won't include nearly all the stories that are out there this week, but a few to demonstrate that attacks are NOT a breed-specific issue and that the people surrounding the dogs are usually the main reason for the attack, and not the dog itself. Worth noting, dogs are incredibly safe animals, and attacks are rare compared to the population of dogs, but they do happen - -and when they do, it is important to judge the circumstances surrounding the attack.

Three children were injured, and one airlifted to the hospital, after a Black Lab that was "repeatedly loose" in the neighborhood injured them. The children ranged in age from 9-12.

A Blue Summit woman was arrested after authorities found 17 dogs living in pretty rough conditions in her home. The dogs were allegedly ill, had mange, and living in a home with feces all over the floor. The woman was running a "rescue" but without proper state licensing.

Kansas City Pet Project gets help again from North Shore Animal League of America in transporting dogs and cats to their facility in New York.

A USA Today article focuses on No Kill Communities and that many shelters across the country are making No Kill happen -- unfortunately, it also focuses on the higher cost of achieving No Kill (which isn't always the case).

Miscellaneous

A really well done article in how to correctly calculate the "age" of your dog or cat in human years. While "7 years = 1 year" has been the common mantra for dogs, it doesn't take into account their rapid development into adulthood. This formula does.

A pit bull type dog in Ohio was found still sitting beside his owner after his owner was killed in a Tornado last week. Authorities said the dog would not leave his owner's side until authorities discovered her....

A Sturgeon Bay, WI woman had her life saved by a cat that she adopted only hours earlier from a local shelter -- the cat woke her up from an insulin reaction that she would have died from. This is an absolutely amazing story.

Dog wins case against city of Minneapolis -- Animal Ark discusses a case of a dog being ruled "potentially dangerous" in spite of not ever hurting an individual or other animal. I will be the first to note, that I've been a fan of the type of law that Minneapolis has -- but only if it is enforced in a reasonable and responsible way.

HSUS top 10 list not so funny -- what do you make of HSUS listing their top 10 rescue partners for places they send animals to after major animal rescues -- that have fairly high kill rates? From Yesbiscuit!

Why dogs? -- Lucky Dog Rescue looks at why she got involved in dog rescue in the first place

No good deed goes unpunished -- would love to hear people's feedback on this post by Paw Prints the Magazine in which a shelter gets donations from Pet Store (who got donations to help them from their customers) that sells puppies...

Speaking of Ontario's breed ban, this is a great article by insideHalton.com noting that if 'pit bulls' were indeed vicious, or indeed breed bans worked, you'd see some expert concensus on the issue. But, in fact, you see the exact opposite. Consensus that such laws are unnecessary and do not work.

March 09, 2012

In Godin's post, he notes about how things we're ashamed of change over time:

"Society changes when we change what we're embarrassed about. In just fifty years, we've made it shameful to be publicly racist. In just ten years, somene who professes to not know how to use the internet is seen as a fool. The question, then, is how long before we will be ashamed of being uninformed...."

Two years ago at the No Kill Conference in Washington Dc, Richard Avanzino made a quote that I think is inherantly true and ties very closely to this concept. In talking about the killing of 4 million shelter animals in our country every year, Avanzino noted:

"I think in 10 years we're going to look back at this time and be embarrassed that we ever allowed this to happen."

I couldn't agree more -- although I think his timing is off a little. I think it's happening right now -- in communities across the United States - people are stepping up and saying that they're embarrassed that their city shelter is unnecessarily killing healthy dogs and cats. They're ashamed that dogs are systematically killed because of what they look like, or that feral cats are rounded up and killed at their shelter (even though such a practice would never exist for other animals like squirrels).

March 07, 2012

I love, love, love this presentation by Michael Huemer at a recent TEDX Talk. For those of you not familiar with TEDX, it is essentially a gathering of 15 minute (ish) speeches of the best and brightest people in various fields that are great ways to learn how experts in other fields think.

This is one of my favorites I've watched from TED. In the talk, Huemer focuses on the irrationality of politics -- and it has a wide variety of practial applications for the purpose of this blog.

First off, Huemer talks about the "War on terror". He displays charts that show the number of US Citizens killed in terrorist attacks by year. He then overlays a chart of the number of people killed by other people who are non-terrorists in those same years.

The difference is pretty astonishing. And while there is much talk politically about the "War on Terror" there is little discussion (especially nationally) about combating a much bigger societal issue -- US Citizens killing each other -- which make up over 99% of the total people killed by other people in this country.

Huemer then goes on to note the actual cost (both financially and in terms of lives) our policy FIGHTING the war on terror -- and notes that our policy for fighting the war on terror has cost 70x more lives (and more than double US lives) than the terrorism we are fighting. He notes that this evidence makes it very much irrational policy.

Huemer also has some really great insights on why we, as a nation, are irrational -- primarily that political information is costly with negligable rewards for being knowledgable about particular policies.

Part of the "cost" of being rational is that you no longer get to believe what you want to believe. If you're truly wanting to be rational, you are taking in new information every day and may have to challenge your belief system.

Huemer warns though, that it is easy to convince people that other people are irrational -- and that people believe that - -and quickly dismiss anyone who disagrees with them as "irrational". That's most certainly not the point of his speech. But he does give some advice to acknowledge when you have biases and are being irrational. Here are a couple:

- If you have strong opinions about a subject before aquiring relevant evidence about it

- If your opinions do not change as you gather evidence

- If you think the people who disagree with you must be evil -- if you are under the impression that a large part of the population is evil, so if you're under that impression then you are most likely being irrational

And one of my favorite quotes:

"If you think the community of experts on this subject are wrong, particularly if you are unable to state their arguments, then you are almost certainly the one that is wrong"

It's a great post. While Austin has (rightfully) earned its place among the leaders of the No Kill Movement, it doesn't mean that animals are not still dying. No kill recognizes that for the average shelter, about 10% of the animals will be either too sick to treat and adopt out -- and euthanasia is the only humane option, or have behavioral issues or aggression and shouldn't be adopted out.

However, among that group, are a lot of dogs with behavioral issues that with a lot of time and training CAN overcome those issues and be perfectly suited for a home. This post is Austin Pets Alive's way of highlighting these dogs and soliciting the donations necessary to save many of these remaining 10%.

It is pretty common for many shelters to use some form of temperament testing to "test out" dogs with behavioral issues and mark them for euthanasia. While certainly it would be irresponsible to adopt a truly aggressive dog into a home, many can, with effort, be saved - and temp test should be designed to identify behavioral issues, not as a "pass/fail" test where failing means death.

While not all shelters have the capacity to work with these dogs in a shelter environment (and sometimes the shelter environment as a whole can be not conducive for highly aroused dogs), having a stable of skilled foster homes available can often be a great way to rehabilitate these dogs.